–
Statement at the General Debate of the 71st Session of the United Nations
General Assembly

中华人民共和国国务院总理李克强

H.E. Li Keqiang, Premier of the
State Council of the People’s Republic of China

2016年9月21日，纽约

New York, September 21, 2016

主席先生：

Mr.
President,

祝贺您当选第71届联合国大会主席，相信在您的主持下，本届联大将顺利推进各项议程。我也赞赏上届联大主席吕克托夫特先生卓有成效的工作。

I congratulate you on your election
as President of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly. I believe that
under your presidency, this session of the General Assembly will move forward
and make good progress according to its agenda. I also appreciate the effective
work of Mr. Lykketoft as President of the last session of the UNGA.

I also wish to pay tribute to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who, with modesty and a drive for harmony and
accommodation, has worked tirelessly and in a down-to-earth manner over the
past decade, and whose work has contributed significantly to world peace,
sustainable development and the advancement and protection of human rights in
the world.

The UN Sustainable Development
Summit held last year adopted the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, opening a new vision for global
development. At the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech entitled
“Towards Win-win Partnership for Sustainable Development” to expound on China’s
principles and position as well as its readiness to advance the agenda for
sustainable development.

This year is the first in the Agenda’s implementation. The G20 Summit
held not long ago in Hangzhou of China reached the Hangzhou consensus on world
economic growth. A blueprint was drawn for building an innovative, invigorated,
interconnected and inclusive world economy. Participants at the Summit pledged
to actively implement the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and formulated an action plan toward that end,
which injected new vigor to global sustainable development. The Chinese
government was also among the first to adopt and release the country’s National Plan on Implementation of the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development. As for the General Assembly, it has
decided that for this year’s session, the general debate will focus on the
theme “The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our
world”. These, in my view, are all highly relevant.

Sustainable development is first
and foremost about development. Development underpins every human achievement.
Without development, nothing can be sustainable. The lack of development is
often at the root of many problems facing the world. Be it poverty or the
refugee crisis, war, conflicts or terrorism, they all could be attributed to
insufficient development and none can be addressed properly without
development. Only development can guarantee people’s fundamental rights. Only
development can root out the cause for global challenges. And only development
can advance human civilization and progress.

Development must be sustainable. It
must be sustainable in all dimensions, otherwise development will be stalled
and strained. Development won’t be sustainable if it is unbalanced, unequal and
widens the gap between the North and the South and the rich and the poor.
Development won’t be sustainable if it is achieved in an extensive manner,
driven by high consumption, high pollution and high emissions and depletes
resources and strains the environment. Development won’t be sustainable if
economic growth and social progress are not well coordinated. Only when we keep
a profound understanding of the implication of sustainability, make all-round
progress in poverty reduction, North-South and South-South cooperation, climate
change and other fields, and work to promote equal sharing and green development
can we ensure that development is truly solid and sustainable.

Sustainable development must be
inclusive and interconnected. Currently, the sustainable development endeavor
is faced with grave challenges: regional conflicts and hotspots are incessant,
traditional and non-traditional security threats intertwine, and the
environment for sustainable development gives no reason for optimism. World
economic recovery remains lukewarm, economic globalization faces strong
headwind, and the momentum for sustainable development is weak. Frequent
occurrence of major infectious diseases and natural disasters is increasingly
prominent, the issues of energy and resource security, food security and
financial security are interwoven, and sustainable development remains an
uphill journey. Difficult moments call for stronger confidence. I believe
mankind has the wisdom and capability to find a way out of difficulty. For that
to happen, there must be cooperation and a spirit of working together to tide
over difficulties. It is time that the international community take on a new
perspective. It should see itself as a community of shared future in which all
are stakeholders, and should make concerted efforts to jointly tackle global
challenges.

主席先生，各位同事！

Mr. President,

Dear Colleagues,

推动可持续发展，要近期和远期结合，以务实的行动应对当前的挑战，积极变革和改造我们的世界。

To advance sustainable development,
we must keep both short-term and long-term interests in mind, tackle challenges
with concrete efforts and work actively to transform and change our world.

– We must uphold the purposes and
principles of the UN Charter. Without
peace and stability, there will be no sustainable development; even the fruits
of development already reaped risk being lost. The hard-won peace that has
prevailed over the past 70 years or more testifies to the effectiveness of the
existing international system with the UN at its core and of the norms of
international relations established on the basis of the UN Charter. This international system and these norms governing
international relations must be upheld resolutely, for they not only serve the
common interests of people of all countries, but also provide the most
essential guarantee for attainment of the sustainable development goals.
Countries need to honor the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in letter and in spirit, and should support the leading
role of the UN and its Security Council in global affairs. Countries need to be
supportive of steady reform and improvement of global governance mechanisms, so
as to adapt to the changing international political and economic landscape. A
new concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security
should be nurtured and a global partnership should be established that features
“dialogue instead of confrontation, and partnership instead of alliance”.

– We must stay committed to the
general direction of settling hotspot issues through political means. Political
resolution is the fundamental way to address regional hotspot issues. History
has shown once and again that to repress violence with force can only lead to
more hatred and warfare, from which no winner will emerge. Parties involved in
conflicts must reject the zero-sum mentality. They should settle disputes
through dialogue, address differences through consultation and seek
reconciliation with tolerance. The mediation efforts of the international
community must be fair and impartial. It should only facilitate the settlement
of issues, not invite new troubles. On the Syrian issue, it is important to
seek a political settlement. The international community should step up efforts
to encourage parties concerned in Syria to put an end to conflict at an early
date and reach a deal for comprehensive political settlement. On the nuclear
issue on the Korean Peninsula, it is imperative to achieve denuclearization and
maintain peace and stability both on the Peninsula and in the region. It is
important to address issues through dialogue and consultation, and effectively
uphold the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Terrorism is the
common enemy of mankind and must be combated resolutely. At the same time, the
practice of double standard should be avoided and there should be no linkage
between terrorism and a certain country, ethnicity or religion.

– We must work together for steady
recovery of the global economy. The world economy cannot afford long-term
sluggishness; otherwise, sustainable development will be a fountain without
source. The current world economy is faced with both insufficient aggregate
demand as well as outstanding structural problems. It is necessary to employ
effective policy tools in a holistic manner, and to combine demand management
with supply-side reform and short-term policies with long-term ones. At the G20
Hangzhou Summit, participants reached common ground and put forward a series of
major initiatives and measures to strengthen macro policy coordination, find
new ways of growth, advance structural reform, improve global economic and financial
governance, reinvigorate international trade and investment, the twin engines
of global growth, and achieve inclusive and interconnected development. We call
on all countries to make concerted efforts to drive the global economy along a
path of strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth. Major economies,
given their significant influence, need to act in a responsible manner in
policy-making and policy coordination. While focusing on their own growth, they
also need to strive to reduce negative spill-overs of their policies and
refrain from adding to the difficulty of global economic recovery.

Economic globalization, represented
by trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, has been a strong
driving force behind fast global growth in past decades. Yet, this is not to
say that there exists any panacea in the world. Frankly, economic globalization
has taken its toll on some industries and communities in certain countries to
certain extent. Active measures need to be taken to address the problem, but it
is always important to keep in mind the bigger picture instead of keeping one’s
eyes on the narrow interests only. Economic globalization is a general trend
that is in line with the long-term and fundamental interests of all countries.
Countries need to stand firm to oppose protectionism of any form, and need to
be resolute in upholding the free trade regime represented by the WTO. This is
a way to enable sustained and sound economic growth for all countries through
win-win and all-win development.

– We must redouble efforts to
address global challenges facing mankind. Greater attention and more support
need to be given to Africa and the least developing countries (LDCs) to help
them speed up industrialization, ensure food security, eliminate poverty and
hunger, and provide everyone with a life of decency and dignity. More needs to
be done to create an international environment that helps reduce inequality and
imbalance in global development. International institutions should spend their
newly-acquired resources on helping developing countries on a priority basis.
Developed countries should make good on their official development assistance
commitments, while developing countries need to rely on themselves for
development and need to seek development paths that suit their national
conditions. As we speak, the world is facing the largest-ever refugee crisis
since World War II. It is imperative to ensure refugees access to basic living
conditions to stave off a humanitarian crisis. Of fundamental importance is to
root out the cause of war and restart development, so that source countries of
refugees can embark on a path of long-term stability, development and
prosperity. Countries need to stay committed to the principles of common but
differentiated responsibilities, equity and respective capabilities, and need
to jointly tackle climate change and work for the Paris Agreement to be universally accepted and take effect at an
early date. Developed countries need to play a leading role, deliver on their
emissions reduction pledges and help developing countries improve the capacity
to mitigate and adapt to climate change.